The Book People and Save the Children to publish 7-year-old Tom Burlison

Tom Burlison from Epsom, who is seven years old, has won this year’s Bedtime Story Competition, ran by Save the Children and The Book People.

Burlison’s story The Incredible Journey is about Elliot and Ruby’s journeys to school and how imagination makes the world more exciting. On their way they travel through puddle portals to pirate lands, get chased by dinosaurs and find parts of alien spacecraft. It was chosen from 1,000 entries and will be turned into a picture book by Little Tiger and illustrator Sara Sanchez.

The book will be published next month and sold via The Book People website, with 35% of the profits going to Save the Children.

Sarah Walden, c.o.o. at The Book People and one of the judges, said: “As soon as we read Tom’s story, we knew it was a wonderfully clever and imaginative tale from a very gifted young author. The Book People is dedicated to inspiring a lifetime of reading and as a community focused company we’re delighted to be teaming up with Save the Children once more to launch Tom’s book.”

Last year’s winner was Frasier Cox, whose book There’s a Boy Just Like Me has sold 10,783 copies, raising almost £23,000 for Save the Children.